Abfabulies

Sew a dog bed with old jeans

We adopted a dog. A lazy dog. And I thought he deserved it to be lazy in style. So I made him a super soft dog bed using four pairs of old jeans. Without much measuring, just going with the flow. What do you need? Some old pillows / an old blanket / anything that is soft enouh to lie...

Free knitting pattern – Carnotaur vs spinosaur cowl

Last year I made this dinosaur cowl with diplodocuses for my youngest son. And since he isn’t the only dinosaur fan in this house, I made a second cowl not that much later for my eldest son. This time I went for a carnotaur fighting a spinosaur. Double knit, double number of stitches, double the details, double the amount of...

5 alternatives for your classic christmas tree

It’s almost December, and almost time to get in the holiday spirit! And while a classic christmas tree sure looks very charming, it’s also very sad to see how it loses its needles, and how in the end it – completely bald – it ends up on the side walk, waiting for its definitive end. So why not try something...

Dinosaur cowl – Free knitting pattern

By pure coincidence, this dinosaur sweater that I knit 5 years ago popped up again a couple of weeks ago. Dinosaurs are still a big hit here, and since I don’t mind a little reuse, I started from the same knitting chart to knit a dinosaur cowl. A double-knit, so this cowl actually has 4 dinosaurs instead of 2: 2...

10 tips to sew your t-shirt quilt

Ever since I met him, my hubby has had a close relationship with geeky t-shirts. He has so many of them, that over the years I’ve been able to make some of them – those that were starting to wear out – disappear into my fabric stash without him noticing. Because one day, I would use them all to sew...

Pouf! How to upcycle jeans

Ripped jeans may be all the rage at the moment, but the ones we had here at home were torn in places of which I preferred people didn’t see them. Then again, I couldn’t just throw them out either. But I did have all the ingredients needed for an upcycle project. A pouf! From jeans! With pockets and everything! Inspiration...

Barbapapa – Free crochet pattern

I already mentioned it in my previous post – Barbapapa has a very calming effect on our youngest. How could I not make a cuddly toy? Would you like to make one yourself? Then you can find the free crochet pattern below. What do you need? Yarn in a barbapapa colour Leftover black and white yarn for the eyes, the...

Barbapapa mittens – Free knitting pattern

I already wrote it four years ago – busy toddler hands are not fond of mittens – too restricting. Back then I solved that issue by adding a cap to the mitten, but I made 1 mistake: I knit the fingers separately, resulting in a lot of fumbling every time the mittens needed to go on. Fastforward to today: new toddler, new...

Tutorial – How to make a wooden christmas tree

Five years ago I took 2 large pieces of cardboard, cut out a christmas tree, and wrote a tutorial about it. That cardboard christmas tree lasted a few years, but in the end it got recycled together with yesterday’s newspaper. The year after, we decided to go for the same theme, but bigger, and with a longer expiration date. A...

Double oven mitt – Free downloadable pattern

My step mom, she knows how to bake. And she does it a lot (and when I say a lot, I mean a lot). All that baking had worn down her oven mitts, and the need for new ones got bigger every week. I started my search for fabric, and landed on an old skirt of mine. One I had...